The showers woke everyone up. Donghae helped Eunhyuk get rid of the sweat, grime and blood. In the kitchen, Leeteuk was practically beside himself. The adults gathered there. “We need to go to the hospital,” he fretted, “But everyone needs to go. It’s not safe to leave anyone alone anymore…”

“Hold up,” Heechul interrupted. He sat at the table, his arm hanging off the chair. “Hangeng and Zhou Mi are coming back this afternoon.”

“All twelve of us can’t just troupe into the airport,” Kangin said sensibly. He leaned against the kitchen counter top.

“Twelve? Yesung isn’t here,” Leeteuk said instantly, looking up sharply. “He’s coming home now. We’re all fetching him.”

Heechul gave a sardonic laugh. “He’s in his twenties, Leeteuk. He doesn’t need a twelve-year-old to follow him.” He was referring to their Canadian maknae. “Calm down and think rationally for goodness sake.”

Kangin glared at Heechul’s lack of tact. Leeteuk busied himself with rearranging the photos on the fridge. Held by magnets, the photos recorded memories held dear to each of the family members. He took the Polaroid of Eunhyuk and held it close to his face. The fright on the younger boy’s face broke Leeteuk’s heart. Kyuhyun had woken up after Donghae. He taken one look at Eunhyuk, and then ran to the door. Whatever the maknae had seen, it had shaken him up terribly because he slammed the door and started shaking.

Leeteuk had ushered Eunhyuk into the bathroom before any of the others could see him in such a state. Donghae had clung unto Eunhyuk, refusing to move away. When the others woke up, Sungmin rushed to Kyuhyun while Kangin ordered them to freshen up first. The sense of disorderliness and uneasiness in the air was poignant.

“We’ll talk to Eunhyuk,” Leeteuk said finally, “while at least three people will get Yesung. Hangeng and Zhou Mi. We’re having a long talk today.”

“We’re not going to the police?” questioned Heechul. The distaste in his voice for the authorities still lingered, but he felt the necessity of the option.

“We made that report,” Kangin said slowly, “but there weren’t any leads for the police to follow. Kyuhyun gets kidnapped, and then dropped off at a hospital three days later. Eunhyuk has only been missing for a few hours, but he’s here.”

“The phone call Ryeowook answered,” Leeteuk put in. “They did threaten to kidnap another one of us, but they never said why.”

Henry walked into the kitchen, his head drooping. “Siwon-hyung sent me here,” he said, uncomfortable under the stares of the three senior members. “Kyuhyun-hyung doesn’t want to speak and keeps hugging Sungmin-hyung. Shindong-hyung wants to know whether he could make breakfast to cheer everyone up, but you’re in the kitchen. Eunhyuk-hyung is crying, and Donghae-hyung seems close to crying too. Ryeowook-hyung is scared, and Kibum-hyung thinks you all should come out soon.”

Leeteuk immediately rushed out. Heechul patted Henry’s head and left, leaving the latter feeling very much like a pet.

“Eunhyuk,” Leeteuk started gently, sitting down on his other side on the sofa. Donghae patted his back reassuringly. The rest were scattered around the living room. “Where have you been?”

Eunhyuk was only aware of the tissues Donghae kept handing him, given by Henry who was sitting by Donghae’s knees and systematically taking out tissues one at a time from a box. “I don’t know…” Eunhyuk hiccoughed, hugging the strawberry-shaped cushion tightly. He dried his face, the shock wearing off.

“That’s what Kyuhyun said before,” muttered Heechul, rolling his eyes.

Kyuhyun huddled closer to Sungmin in response. Sungmin frowned at the movement. He looked at Eunhyuk. “What happened after I called you in the afternoon, Eunhyuk?”

Shindong came back from the kitchen with a tray of cookies and empty glasses, while Ryeowook followed behind solemnly with a bottle of milk. Like a waiter, Ryeowook presented Eunhyuk with a packet of strawberry milk. He took it gratefully.

“Me and Junsu bought some pink streamers at the party shop near school,” Eunhyuk said, squeezing his eyes shut to recall. “He needed to buy some other stuff so I ditched him to get a burger for lunch.”

It was so typically him that a couple of boys snorted into soft laughter. They sobered up quickly under Leeteuk’s ‘not-now’ gaze, but it broke the tension in the room. Eunhyuk leaned against Donghae more comfortably. He looked none the worse after the shower and a change of clothes, only sporting a bloody lip and some minor cuts on his arms and legs.

“There was a white van following me behind slowly,” he continued, his words coming out more hesitantly. “Then a woman asked me if I wanted a ride home.”

“You said ‘no’,” Siwon said, not wanting to think the alternative.

Eunhyuk looked taken back, realising he had an audience. He shifted uneasily on the sofa. “Yeah, I did. But the van kept driving close and in the end I started to run.”

A hand crept into Sungmin’s own. The maknae’s face was very, very pale.

“Someone grabbed me and put me in the back of the van. I don’t know where we went, but when the back of the van opened, it was night.” He began talking fast, obviously embarrassed and unwilling to remember the entire affair. Nobody interrupted which was something he was thankful for. “A man came into the back, and said I was the wrong boy. He- he started beating me.”

Donghae and Leeteuk practically pounced on him, giving him a hug. The rest subconsciously drew nearer to him, trying to offer comfort. Heechul snarled, Kangin clenched his fists, and Siwon looked angry. Kibum flinched inwardly and Kyuhyun whimpered.

“What’s wrong with you, Kyuhyun?” Sungmin whispered finally, looking down where he was leaning on his shoulder.

“Did the same thing happen to you?” Heechul asked, catching on fast.

“I only remember the van,” Kyuhyun mumbled, not looking as though he was quite grounded to reality. Ryeowook touched Kibum’s shoulder, giving the younger a cookie. Kibum took the comfort food quietly.

“How did you get back?” Kangin asked.

Eunhyuk looked down distractedly at his empty packet. Ryeowook fished out another from nowhere and handed it to Henry, who nudged Donghae’s knee where he was leaning against.

“He wanted the other boy back,” Eunhyuk said, not listening. “He was angry at someone for taking away his son.”

Everyone was quiet.

“What the hell?” Heechul summarised perfectly. “None of us have fathers.” He looked around at everyone from his armchair. “Right?”

“The phone call…” Henry mentioned tentatively, “… the caller said the word ‘son’. Many times.”

“He said ‘I’m going to get him back’,” Ryeowook added.

“Does anybody here still have any of his parents?” Leeteuk asked, seeing Heechul’s impatience with the maknaes’ interruption. Eunhyuk raised his hand, confused. “Those people weren’t my parents,” he said. Siwon raised his hand as well though it was half-hearted. Shindong put one hand up, then put it back down sullenly, and ignored Sungmin’s sigh.

“Who doesn’t know if they still have parents?” Sungmin rephrased the question. He raised his hand. Kyuhyun put his hand up.

“Look here,” Kangin said, “we’re legal adults already.” He was referring to himself, Heechul, Leeteuk, Yesung and Hangeng. “There’s no way our parents are looking for us. We can rule us out.”

“That leaves ten of us,” Siwon counted briskly. “With the hands, there are five possible ‘sons’. It definitely wasn’t Eunhyuk’s parents.”

“Or they could have been a foster parent who wants the kid back,” Kibum said roughly. There were looks of surprises; nobody had considered that. “I don’t think anybody’s real parents are crazy enough to kidnap their own child when they have rights to them, except in Siwon-hyung’s case.”

The stony face Siwon had deterred any questions. Leeteuk threw his hands into the air. “That leaves us back to square one then. It could have been any of the families we’ve been with.”

“Psychotic ones?” Henry suggested. He had never been in a foster home, but was sure that not all of them would have been too bad.

“What about the police?” Kibum recommended, taking a leaf from Heechul’s book.

“All we know is there’s a van, a man and a woman kidnapping orphaned boys, and returning them,” Shindong said practically. He blinked. “Wow that does sound crazy.”

“They didn’t return Kyuhyun,” Donghae pointed out. “Heechul-hyung just found him in the hospital, after the police didn’t do squat.” The police placed an advertisement in their ‘Missing Persons’ noticeboard and left their work at there. It was Heechul and Leeteuk who had spent two days searching frantically, all the while trying to keep everyone else calm. It had been exhaustive work on their part.

“The hospital called me,” Heechul revealed, “Kyuhyun had our home contact in his wallet.”

The subject had somehow veered back to Kyuhyun. That was when they finally noticed how abnormally pale he was. He was holding to Sungmin’s arm very tightly.

“Did you have the same experience?” Eunhyuk asked quietly. To Siwon’s God, or whoever, he prayed not.

Kyuhyun took his time to answer. His gaze was concentrated on the floor, his body rocking backwards and forwards rhythmically as he recalled. “White van dropped Eunhyuk-hyung off,” he said clearly, but his sentences were simple, “no number plate. I saw.”

Kangin nearly jumped in his seat to exclaim. He could have followed the van. Leeteuk held onto his shoulder from his seating position and shook his head sadly. The chance was gone.

“A woman told me to go into the van… I got knocked out I think… I don’t remember.”

Everyone with the exception of Sungmin leaned back in their seats, defeated. “How did you get to the hospital, Kyu?” Sungmin asked gently.

“I – I –” As he waded through his memories, his hyungs exchanged glances. They had not followed up with the incident after Kyuhyun’s release from the hospital; believing his first words when he regained consciousness that he did not remember anything.

The phone rang, alarming everyone. Henry was the nearest to the phone, but Heechul dived for it. Leeteuk coaxed the attention back to Kyuhyun. “What do you recall?”

“Dark, night time. Van door…”

The van door opened. Kyuhyun pressed himself against the wall of the van, holding his breath. He waited for the man to come in again, and beat him. Tell him lies, about the horrible things Kyuhyun had done as a child, that he needed to be punished. Tell him how long it took him to track him down, that he had wallowed years suffering the repercussions Kyuhyun had caused him. Not that he had said the word ‘Kyuhyun’. It was always ‘son’ or ‘my son’.

The sky was dark again, which meant Kyuhyun had spent more than two nights in the van already. His hunger had dulled to an ache, and the water bottle he had in his schoolbag was almost empty. But nobody came in.

He took the chance. He tested his muscles, and decided to ignore the pain. Blood dripped from his fingers where he had inadvertedly touched the knife-made cut on his leg. He crawled out and waited for noise. There were snores coming from the front of the vehicle. He got out and ran. Ran down the hill, saw a road. He flagged down a taxi and passed out.

Sungmin wrapped his arms around Kyuhyun. Heechul stared open-mouthed at Kyuhyun. Tiny voices began barking from the phone receiver. He muttered a quick goodbye.

“That was Hangeng,” Heechul said. “He and Zhou Mi arrived at the airport already.”

“That person is crazy,” Ryeowook exclaimed, horrified, unable to keep in his thoughts. “There’s someone out there like that looking for us?”

Immediately, everyone burst out talking at once.

“How can the police not do anything?”

“They know where we live!”

“I’m scared…”

“Who is that person?”

“QUIET!” ordered Leeteuk. “You’re right, he knows where we live. But so far he’s only kidnapped alone, and the driver of that white van can’t identify us. He only knows a boy living close by, wearing school uniform.”

“He wants Kyuhyun,” Kangin said bluntly. “Isn’t that why he didn’t let him go?”

“We don’t know that for sure,” Siwon said, unsure whether it was a comforting fact or not.

“Hello? Airport?” Heechul waved the phone in the air. “Who has a spare car and a driving license? I need to go to work.”

“I want Yesung-hyung,” reminded Ryeowook, hugging his knees to his chest. It was hard to imagine such dangers in broad daylight – but then again, that was when the kidnappings took place.

“Who wants to fetch Hangeng and Zhou Mi? I’ll drive,” Leeteuk offered.

Suddenly, everyone seemed interested in their food. “Oh come on, I’m not that bad,” he added.

“I’ll go,” volunteered Siwon.

“Me too,” Kyuhyun said, “I don’t want to stay here.”

“I’ll get Yesung then,” Kangin said.

Ryeowook stood up immediately. Sungmin agreed to go as well.

“That leaves Shindong in charge,” Leeteuk declared. “But everybody else staying at home is normally well-behaved, so there won’t be any trouble.” He decided not to point out the Eunhae disasters; including the time Eunhyuk and Donghae dared each other to wire the house for Christmas one time they were left alone as the oldest in the house and ended up short-circuiting everything. They would be quiet today, he thought. He clapped his hands to get everyone moving. “Let’s go!”

Hangeng and Zhou Mi lounged at the departure hall. Compared to Zhou Mi, Hangeng was older by only two years and shorter by a couple of inches – but whenever they came back from China, Zhou Mi always had a bubbly aura about him, more so than usual. It was borderline frightening. Imagine Odi and Garfield, with Zhou Mi being the excited pup running circles around a nonchalant Garfield.

“I bought so many clothes for everyone,” Zhou Mi reminisced happily, leaning back into his chair and stretching his long legs, patting his pink luggage bag he borrowed from Sungmin fondly. “The salesgirls are a lot friendlier than the last time we went back, and I got so many discounts.”

Hangeng gave an indulgent smile in his direction. Though he had heard plentiful times about these sales during their week-long trip, it was not often the younger Chinese could go shopping. “I already told you, the last time you were here, you were ten and hadn’t gone through puberty yet,” he explained.

There was a deep-throated laugh.

“You just want to hear people say how handsome you are to feed your ego, don’t you?” Hangeng shook his head hopelessly. “I shouldn’t have fallen for that. You spend way too much time with Kyuhyun.”

Zhou Mi just grinned. “You say that to Heechul-hyung all the time,” he brought up. “Where is he by the way?” Hangeng took a moment before answering to thank God that Zhou Mi was good-natured; they had been waiting for close to an hour already.

“If I don’t say anything to Heechul, he won’t be quiet. He said he’ll be here soon.” For the lack of anything better to talk about – they had already looked through their camera photos for Heechul’s blog, read up on that day’s newspaper at the airport bookshop and identified the airport fashion do’s and don’ts – he continued, “He sounded upset about something.”

“His hair? That new product you got for him is quite good for dandruff,” Zhou Mi said seriously, sounding like he had the experience of a seasoned stylist.

Hangeng face-palmed.

“Is it Kui Xian?” Zhou Mi asked, his voice lower. “I feel guilty about leaving him before he got discharged from the hospital.”

“I just got a text,” said Hangeng, agreeing with the high schooler’s sentiments. “Leeteuk, Kyuhyun and Siwon are coming to pick us up. Heechul says he needs to go to work, and expects a thousand-word summary in Korean about what we did. Either that or some ‘bloody good photos’.”

There was a thoughtful silence. “I don’t think I know a thousand Korean words.”

“Hmm. Neither do I.”

“But if Kui Xian is coming, it means he’s feeling better,” Zhou Mi inferred brightly.

“Let’s go wait at the taxi arrival,” Hangeng suggested practically. He got a frown in return.

“And leave the air-conditioning?”

“Zhou Mi!”

“Okay, okay.”

During the car ride, there were exclamations of horror and terror as Leeteuk jammed the brakes at the sight of a red light. Everybody lurched forwards. Siwon grabbed onto the handle grip at the car door while Kyuhyun clutched onto the headrest of the passenger seat in front.

“Thank God for seatbelts,” Siwon said, his eyes wide.

“The airport is not too far away,” Kyuhyun muttered, looking out the window. “Siwon-hyung can piggy-back me there.” Any flashbacks were forgotten in the face of the imminent danger called Leeteuk’s driving. Leaving behind the tense atmosphere at home, he returned to his normal self.

“It’s not too bad,” protested Leeteuk, peering at the rearview mirror to see them. “We’re still alive, and not a single scratch on the car!”

“Did you make the huge dent on the boot, hyung?” Kyuhyun asked suspiciously. “Yesung-hyung was asking about it.”

Leeteuk seemed overly interested in changing lanes then.

Siwon watched as the outside world blurred when Leeteuk sped off again. “Hyung, I’ve got something to say.”

“Yeah?” Leeteuk took another sharp turn to the right.

Siwon turned to Kyuhyun. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. Instead he started gesturing to himself and then to Kyuhyun, his movements getting bigger and wilder.

“Hyung, I’m young, not deaf.”

“Say it, Siwon, I can’t hear anything.”

There was a deep breath. “I think the person who kidnapped Eunhyukkie and Kyuhyunnie…” His left hand started to rise but Kyuhyun grabbed it and pinned it down to the seat firmly. “… is actually after me. I don’t agree with Kangin-hyung; it might be my par-” The last word went into a mumble, but they understood.

“Why would you think that?” Leeteuk asked. He was concerned, but expected it really. It was only paranoia’s nature to make weak links to the boys’ pasts to jump to conclusions.

“The knife work?” Siwon glanced at Kyuhyun, who distracted himself with Leeteuk’s bad driving. “That sounds like him. And I was around twelve or thirteen too when I left the house, which is Kyu’s age, but definitely younger than Hyukkie.

“Hold the thought, Siwon,” Leeteuk said firmly, coming to a stop at the airport drive-in. He turned around bodily and looked at Siwon. “Whatever that is happening now, it’s none of our faults. That twisted person responsible for this can be anyone. Despite our guesses earlier, it’s not our job to find out who he is but rather to keep each other safe. Okay? Leave the guessing to the police.”

Siwon gestured forcefully, accidentally smacking the absent-minded Kyuhyun on the chin. “Sorry! But what if it is my father, hyung?”

“Then we have a name to match the face,” answered Leeteuk. “Oh! I see Hangeng!”

Zhou Mi and Hangeng got up to date within five minutes. Hangeng got into the front seat, while Kyuhyun whined about Zhou Mi’s long legs in the back.

“Is Eunhyuk okay?” repeated Zhou Mi for the umpteenth time. “I can’t believe so much happened!”

“They’re all recovering,” Leeteuk reassured them hastily. They left the expressway and started on a two-lane road. The car veered dangerously near to the sides, where a drain ran through.

Hangeng peered to the side outside the window. “Do you want me to drive?” he offered.

“YES!” chorused the back seat.

“No, I can do it.”

Then, there was a clash of metal against metal, and the car jerked. There were cries of exclamation. Zhou Mi turned in his seat. “That white van just hit us!” he said incredulously.

White van?

Kyuhyun grabbed the front seat headrest again. “Faster!” he begged, just as loud honking echoed down the deserted street.

“There isn’t any number plate!” Siwon noticed in frustration.

Then came another bang.

A/N: Thanks for your comments~ I present to you the longest chapter in the story so far. 

Well, next chapter will be an interesting car chase. And it's about time Yesung came into the picture. SUBSCRIBE AND COMMENT!